In terms of the mat room though... it's not like there isn't the guidance and learning material there... and like a lot of others, it's not that I've not made some inroads into it.

I think it's just that, if someone else has already mastered it past the point I know I could (because I know the limits to which I am prepared to apply myself) I don't see a clear point in pursuing that course of learning in a lot of depth... well not if the fruits of that prior mastery is accessible for me to re-use.

But the thing is, I've realised, the node system itself isn't rocket science... or quantum mathematics.

The node system is potentially quite straight forward, I reckon. It's kind of just joining the dots... between elements, many of which are quite intuitive to use, if you don't worry too much about all the numbers in them

It only becomes complicated when you are trying to describe (or at least make an approximate model of) real world material properties using it.

That's not the node system then that's complicated. It's the real world system being modelled. Or, maybe it's not that always, but it's the bridge you need to build, between Firefly's limitations and the real world system being modelled, that is complicated... but anyway...

I guess the beauty of the node system is that it opens up the potential to do this, way past the original remit for Poser or Firefly.

But it does take a certain kind of mind to interpret the real world mathematically in this way, and then transpose that into this system of nodes... sure.

I certainly feel no shame, or sense of personal under-achievement, that I should defer to those, like BB, who can do this task so well... far from it, I am overjoyed there is someone there to push the envelope to my benefit.

I feel my talents, such as they are, are probably more in other areas...